if kouyates injury is much more serious than we are being told about and this is the reason behind this attempted transfer....if kouyate was fit we clearly need another midfielder but a playmaker more than a defensive player like this....

Just came back from a week in Valamoura and was talking to the locals who all rave about Carvalho apparently he reads the game brilliantly, can unlock defences, is strong and powerful can play the number 6 role or the number 8 a class act. So lets bloody sign him rapid!!!!!!!!!!!

This transfer sounds positive to me. If it comes off it could see kouyate either off or at centre half. Wouldn't be surprised if it's the former. Also think we need to start with two dm, based on how I think bilic might want to play. Noble will need to up his game this season.

betty was saying the same but surely if the club is to push forwards i.e. top ten/top eight etc obiang, noble, kouyate and carvalho vying for two DM positions isn't too much? i can't see why one needs to go. all it takes is one to get some sort of injury and you left with just one other option each match. if you play with 2 strikers, then you would want at least 4 in your squad.

Yes but this is a one sided perspective. This is sort of the problem with the fantasy football mentality, that we only look at things from a detached point of view. Actually you've missed Obiang and Fernandes from that list so it would be 5. The problem is that any one of those players may want to play alll the time. I think Obiang was close to going last season, until he got a decent run in the team, for instance. There aren't many pleaders happy to just be a sub, waiting for someone to get injured. That's why Spurs can't sign anyone at the moment. If there was such a player he'd be crap, or old. It's all about players now, their moods, desires, wants. It's hard enough to manage these guys let alone when you've got 5 or 6 players for two positions.

i did mention obiang. fernandes for me is a fill in player anyway so I'm not counting him. however i totally disagree with your view to be honest. what you are saying is that clubs can't have squad players anymore…because everyone will be 'unhappy'. history though shows us this isn't true. its actually called 'competition for places'. when a player, say kouyate can't get in because carvalho and noble are playing too well, thats life for a footballer, but it goes hand in hand with the club doing well. all this stuff about you can't buy more than your starting 11 just makes no sense. spurs could easily buy the likes of dembele, carvalho etc. the problem for them is their first team is settled and good and pochettino is a manager that likes the same same each match, its not a case of players not wanting to go and give it a go to try and displace kane or ali, its a case of spurs thinking they don't need them and if you look at their squad its probably true. spurs are also known as low payers, they don't fork it out, as rose is saying. so its far more a case of just not paying than no one wanting to go there. its nothing to do with fantasy football that you keep referring to, basically you seem to think anyone who disagrees with the board or your perspective is a fantasist these days. maybe its a case of you not seeing things more generally? anyway, i think we need to accept that modern clubs have squads, not a first 11 and then some youngsters. also, imo obiang won't get into the first 11 of any clubs above us (i.e. top 10) so can't see what his beef would be if he wasnt a regular.

I'd say the reason why spurs are not buying is as much down to needing the money for their new stadium than anything else. We need a squad not a team. That's been one of our problems. The top teams all have them and even the other teams leave decent players on the bench at times due to having a more inform or suitable player for that game. In all honest a West Ham manager now needs to embrace it's a squad thing and so use the squad not an 11 with subs if need be. People like kouyate can (and should) play at centre half where he can benefit us more if he won't I won't waste any sleep selling him for decent money. As for noble I'm sure most would agree he needs to up his game from last season, but that's how it should be. I'm sure he can see that anyway.

But you then have to accept that Obiang will leave. If Carvalho signs and is better then so be it. If you're theory is tight why didn't Randolph stay or Adrian wants to leave? Players know that if Carvalho comes in at €40m he's starting. They either do as you say or go, unfortunately the modern player isn't the roll your sleeves up type, so he'll go instead. We've also got Cullen who we've loaned out and Burke in CB role. In fact we currently have 5 cbs at the club all vying for a start. I bet you one will leave as they know 5 does not go into 2.

don't have to accept one will leave, no. in obiang's case, he's signed a new contract, theres no guarantee you start every game. and why can't he play alongside carvalho? noble and him rotating? kouyate coming in for one or other along the way? theres 38 games a season plus cups. we keep hearing how players today can't play every game or even near it, so whats the problem? i think you are making problems that don't exist. obiang for example, if he doesnt be a starter every game…how does he just 'leave'? lets face it he's not going to have barcelona or psg throwing cash at him to go there….so its up to the club to sell him if they want. other than that, bit like randolph and adrian, they go when the club tells them they go. adrian for example, if he's on the bench he doesnt get up and leave the club. its only the big players, the payets, neymars, coutinhos who can 'force' the clubs hand, but even then neymar would not have been allowed to go if there wasnt a release clause written in his contract. i think people are going way over the top with this belief that players can just leave at will. why would obiang even want to? if he's still playing a part in the team which he no doubt would be, he's still being paid a fortune, so unless he fancies going to huddersfield or swansea or stoke for less money, why would he try to 'instigate a move?' and before we say 'he can just down tools' …well its a long season, if you have the likes of obiang playing rubbish in a huff or playing truant or whatever….there won't be many bids coming in at the end of the season will there?

Surely a player can play over 25 games and be satisfied? Just because a player doesn't start a few games shouldn't mean he doesn't have a fair amount of game time if the squad is rotated properly. If a manager doesn't rotate his squad then he should go to a championship team. There are plenty of reasons a player shouldn't play and be ok about it. Injury, suspension, poor form, African nations cup, late arrival to pre season due to international duty, late back from a long trip after int duty. (Ie if Mexico were playing and Hernandez had a long flight and short recovery time) this idea of people getting out of their pram is more old school. Most players want big money and in a successful team. I think players would rather be getting 25 games in a good squad than 38 at Huddersfield. If they are not then they aren't worth keeping because they don't have the drive. To better themselves or the team. Obiang didn't leave on his first season with us. So as long as he gets 25 plus I'd bet he would be ok about it. Ditto noble and kouyate. Of course I maybe wrong but either of those three have shown themselves as unreasonable. Having said that I doubt carvalho will come anyway unless we have sold a big money player.

Looks like this move is not going to happen. Smoke and mirrors. Sold Feghouli for around £4M and brought in another decent chunk of cash. Net spend is very little for a supposedly ambition "top ten" side.

Is this guy going to offer a lot more than Rice? Apparently he's a midfield engine but he couldn't shoot if his life depended on it? £30m+ and we are the only ones bidding so why are we bothering when we have a youth showing promise as a back up? Seems bloody pointless.......

He's a smaller version of Pogba, and yes, as you say, without the scoring ability. But we need someone who can split defences with a pass, someone with vision and someone (anyone) who can enforce discipline in our own half. If I had the money, I'd pay it. (Haven't seen enough of Rice, by the way, so can't comment on the comparison, but we could stand to have both players).

he should play at the back this lad is the best young c/b we have had since Rio he can play alongside reid when fit but for now pair him with ginge....lanzini and kouyate in the middle....i am of the same mind call lisbons bluff and pull out of the deal lets see what happens then...but we do need a midfielder who can defend and noble is not that and obiang is way way off the pace right now

Whats to say he can't play the midfield role? quoted as beng one of our best players in the last 2 games in midfield so maybe his best position is actually there? how many youth players make the transition and on a like for like basis? Hardly any and this guy looked as comfortable in midfield as Peter Stringfellow and Hugh Hefner surrounded by jack and danny, so why not give the lad the chance?

But Sporting still haven't agreed the transfer fee. Let's hope this gets done; it would be absolutely HUGE for the club this season. It's not the one signing alone, but this would really be the piece in the puzzle that allows us to go forward with confidence. And if Slav can't get at least 8th with that team, he should walk.

he can walk quite well!! and today the papers running a story that the board are looking into replacements...kind of early season story the papers love to spin but now they have backed him this summer he is going to have to produce or he will be gone before sept is out i reckon

Its all down to the Huddsfield game bike if we get 3 shipped past us then its taxi for slav and after you've dropped him at the airport order another one for that so called goal kepper and then get on to interflora and send the biggest most expensive bunch of flowers round to Adrian' s house with the longest kiss arse apology in history

Reports are conflicting, with some saying Slav is still optimistic, but Sky Sports have quoted club officials saying that they have abandoned this deal as too expensive. Maybe it is. £40M for a holding midfielder who doesn't score is indeed a lot of money! But West Ham badly need quality in that position. Money aside, he would have been a good signing.

I think thats the point a lot miss. they say it was too much money but wouldnt signing him be better than not signing him? its not like the money will,affect the club adversely. and the point is if we dont sign him but sign some cheapie from hull why is that better? saving money? I dont really understand the argument of him being too much money.

Never looked likely that he would sign for us, as we all know the Portugeuse negotiate a hard deal that we were never going to afford or agree to. As a earlier post says, Ndong may be a target, with Hugh Jarse at the back and his wife Norma Stitz as his agent may appeal to girlie mags tycoons.

there was never any offer for the player..sporting lisbon have come out and called sullivan a liar and challenged him to prove them wrong...i am guessing it will be all quiet from him on the subject now.

Sullivan is either incompetent or he thinks we are stupid. He says we had no time to give carvalho his medical, but we all know you can sign a player subject to a medical plus he says he isn't fit yet plays for Portugal a couple of days later. Inshort based on our fitness level, he is the equivalent of mo farah